J. Allen St. John: Grandmaster of Fantasy

August 21, 2007 7:33 AM

Before Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel, and Michael Whelan, J. Allen St. John brought to life the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and defined the images of Tarzan and Barsoom. St. John also illustrated a wide variety of books and magazines and produced some pulp masterpieces.
posted by marxchivist (10 comments total)

Inspired by this post. A couple of retrospectives on St. John are available.

Roy Krenkel.

Michael Whelan, sample of his ERB art.
posted by marxchivist at 7:33 AM on August 21, 2007

That is some old-school pulp work. Awesome.
posted by GuyZero at 7:49 AM on August 21, 2007

Wow, great stuff. I'm not familiar with the name but I've seen some of hise are before. Added those books to my Amazon wish list. (Like I really need more art books)
posted by octothorpe at 8:03 AM on August 21, 2007

Thanks for this; they're superb. I like the emphasis on movement and character over that of pose and costumery that characterizes the more familiar, comparatively recent artists. I'm a huge admirer of Frazetta but his approach has come to dominate the genre and these, despite being older, are a breath of fresh air.
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:39 AM on August 21, 2007

Great post Marxchivist. I had not heard of St. John or Krenkel before and they're both excellent.
posted by doctor_negative at 10:22 AM on August 21, 2007

Really interesting retrospectives from artists I never knew were out there. Thank you for bringing them to my attention. Some of the old-school images really grab you and draw you in, don't they?
posted by misha at 11:17 AM on August 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

Boy this one takes me back, but the most familar to me was a Krenkel.
posted by MtDewd at 12:59 PM on August 21, 2007

Ah, yes. I remember being fascinated by book-covers with John Carter of Mars in his leather harness when I was young. It figures.
posted by Robert Angelo at 3:59 PM on August 21, 2007

There's a real William Blake vibe to the pulp masterpieces link. Thanks for the post.
posted by landis at 6:00 PM on August 21, 2007

Awesome stuff, Marxchivist, thanks. A few years ago I saw a couple of the Venus series books that St. John did (the first two only, I think) and they were amazing. His cover for Pirates of Venus may be my all-time pulp fave.
posted by mediareport at 7:40 PM on August 21, 2007